Newly appointed Election Board chair seeks to improve voter turnout

The Undergraduate Students Association Council unanimously appointed a former Election Board member as the 2015-2016 Election Board chair Monday.

As the new chair, Lindsay Allen said she intends to improve voter turnout by asking candidates to talk about their platforms instead of themselves and each other next campaign season.

Allen, a rising second-year mathematics/economics student, previously assisted former Election Board Chair Shagun Kabra with a recent overhaul of the election code during the 2015 USAC election. The amended code regulates when and how candidates can use social media to campaign and requires candidates to disclose their funding sources.

USAC President Heather Rosen said one other person applied for the position, but she was impressed with Allen’s understanding of the election process and the current partisanship that she said prevents candidates from focusing on their platforms.

Allen said she thinks students might have chosen not to vote in recent elections because of how aggressive candidates were during the contentious campaign season. She added she thinks voter turnout would be better if candidates focused on promoting their issues instead of attacking opposing slates.

Voter turnout in the most recent election reached its lowest point in the last six years with 29.6 percent of students submitting ballots, despite Kabra’s attempt to incentivize voting by raffling food vouchers. Since 2008, spring election turnout has remained around 35 percent.

“I think the incentives are a good thing, but I don’t think anyone knew about it,” Allen said. “I would do it again, but I would work to advertise it more.”

Allen said she wants to arrange a meeting between different candidates and their campaign managers so they are able to become acquainted and understand each other’s platforms before the campaign season officially begins.

USAC Internal Vice President Heather Hourdequin said at the hearing the council chose her because she has a vision to increase voter turnout and make election a positive process.

Allen said she would also like everyone on the Election Board to participate in deciding how to use the board’s publicity budget to maximize the effectiveness of advertising on potential voters.

USAC recently reduced the board’s publicity budget by $9,520 to $26,136 to help offset an allocation decrease to the Student Organizations Operational Fund.

“That’s going to be a challenge this year, to more effectively spend our now-smaller funds,” Allen said.

During her appointment hearing, Allen said she will also look into possible block voting during elections and how to prevent it, but cannot conduct a formal investigation until someone files a case with the board.

Allen said she wanted to become the board’s chair after working with Kabra and the Election Board during the 2014-2015 term on changes and events such as Meet the Candidates, an open forum at which students asked candidates questions, and endorsement hearings.

She said she thinks elected student government officials at UCLA have a lot of decision-making power and wants to ensure their election process is conducted with integrity.